Beautiful Georgian Bay

Sunday of a long weekend spent on the shore of Georgian Bay, is about as close to Heaven as you can get (in my opinion).

Our day started with strawberry pie for breakfast as I predicted yesterday.  We enjoyed not one by two pieces of strawberry pie each and yes you must have dairy with breakfast!

Being part of our church family is important to us and so attending 10:00 service is something we do most Sundays.  Today we were privileged to be asked to sit with two young boys whose Grandpa was the music leader.  

Never underestimate the investment you make in a child’s life by spending time with them.   I still remember the older adults that took the time to see me when I was a child.

We were to have had lunch at with a cherished friend however he texted at the last minute and was too ill to attend.  We journeyed on to Wiarton as the day was just to beautiful to stay at home.

We had lunch at Dockside Willies the best burgers!

Then we spent the rest of the day walking along the shoreline and just sitting enjoying the birds, breeze, and water.

Having finished one crafting project, my yoga socks I have started the next project on my list a sweater for Kelsey our daughter-in-love. 

 I had a wonderful place in the sun overlooking the bay to sit and knit.

The Wiarton Library Book Sale was on where I found some amazing books to turn into junk journals.  I hope to do a video of the books I found soon.

The water is very high in the Great Lakes in Wiarton the boat trailer parking lot is not an extension of the lake.

The flowers around the shoreline were stunning as was the view of the bay from our vantage point.

Once home the day was still too beautiful to go inside so we sat in our front yard and finished listening to The Garden Of Evening Mist by Tan Twan Eng on Audiobooks.  Audiobooks mean I can listen and knit at the same time.

Thank you for coming along today.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2019 twosnydergirls

Joy In An Ordinary Life

Creating a place where I can watch the world
and write.

Definition of Ordinary:

 not different or special or unexpected in any way; usual 

~ Cambridge Dictionary

The past three days have been ordinary in that nothing unexpected happen yet everything was new and full of joy.

Getting the winter tires taken off
Too soon?

With nothing exceptional to say I will let this poem speak for me.

The Ordinary Man

by Robert W. Service

If you and I should chance to meet,

I guess you wouldn't care;

Making nutritious meals
Chickpea Stew  

I'm sure you'd pass me in the street

As if I wasn't there;

Another great instant pot meal - all made at the
same time in the same pot (recipe at bottom)

You'd never look me in the face,

My modest mug to scan,

I look forward to the safe space that is create at yoga. 

Because I'm just a commonplace

       And Ordinary Man.

Each day is a new adventure.

But then, it may be, you are too

A guy of every day,

Yoga is always peaceful.

Who does the job he's told to do

And takes the wife his pay;

Enjoying the resources that our library holds
I am reading Jayne Anne Krentz River Road.

Who makes a home and kids his care,

And works with pick or pen. . . .

Libraries hold more than books they hold many
community resources.

Why, Pal, I guess we're just a pair

       Of Ordinary Men.

Nature always creates vista that capture my attention

We plug away and make no fuss,

Our feats are never crowned;

Each year the same trees and bushes bloom and each year
they are unique as they dress in the spring flowers.

And yet it's common coves like us

Who make the world go round.

And as we steer a steady course

By God's predestined plan,

Hats off to that almighty Force.

THE ORDINARY MAN. 

I sit tonight at my desk.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 cups basmati rice
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 pieces of frozen Tilapia
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

1. Prepare all of the ingredients
2. Set the instant pot on saute and add the olive oil, onion, garlic, ginger, and carrots.  Saute until the onion are translucent cancel the saute setting.
3. Remove this from the instant pot and set aside 
4. Return the pot and using the broth deglaze the bottom of the pot
5. Add rice and stir
6. Add the onion mixture on top of rice Do Not Mix just spread this evenly over the rice
7. Place your Tilapia filet carefully on top of the onion mixture.
8. Set the instant pot to manual for 4 minutes making sure you have the instant pot on seal
9. Let the instant naturally release for 10 minutes then care not to burn yourself release the remaining pressure.
10. Plate in reverse order 

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2019 twosnydergirls

A day just a little off kilter

Slept in this morning and missed the sunrise, and with that my day was just a little off kilter as a result.

I am learning that in retirement sleeping in does not provide me joy rather it leave me feeling just a little out of control, like I am chasing the day instead of meeting each moment with expectation.

Once I was up I quickly moved to surround myself things that bring me joy, morning vitamins from a cherished keepsake that brings back wonderful memories of our children, my morning smoothie in a beloved mug gifted to us by grandchildren. 

With all of this in place we sat quietly and listened to Pray-as-go a podcast we find uplifting.

Dishes done we went for a walk and found a new piece of art work in front yard of the local wine shop and that is when it started to rain.  We left home without an umbrella and so spent the last half of our walk-in a down pour.  We got wet!

We never take for granted how lucky we are to live close to our adult children and while today's rescue came from a visiting child we have in the past just called one of our other two children when help was needed.  

The rain continued and with our shopping done we called our son and waited at McDonald’s for our knight in shining armor to arrive.  I picked up light reading and nope I found no new insight.

Next is was off for a planned trip to take our new daughter-of-love (my new term to describe some just as important as a daughter-in-law) to taste the wonderful food at the Wismer House in Port Elgin.  The Hummus platter was amazing and the fish and chips as always, the best you can find.

I was caught on camera hamming-it-up with Kelsey’s glasses.  The hand sign means “having a good time.”  Now I did have to google it to make sure I was not signing something bad, clearly my facial expression does not match LOL. 

Back home, normal everyday activities were looked after, cleaning, crushing cans, and laundry.   

I ended my day as I am want to do with a good cup of tea in my pink rocking chair writing this post and enjoying my window on the world.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2019 twosnydergirls

How many men does it take to hang a shelf?

In our case it took one man to hold the shelf to the wall and two to find the studs to screw the shelf in too.

This evening was pure joy as friends of Alexander's dropped by the house to say hello just as they used to many years ago.  Alexander working with his father their good natured banter punctuating the much quieter conversations in the kitchen where I 

assisted Kelsey in creating a new curry instant pot recipe in the kitchen.

Laughter rang through a house full of the wonderful aromas of cooking

and best of all there was story telling and remembering things long since past.

This evening Kelsey got to know Alexander through the eyes of his friends and parents around a table full of great food, the table he grew up at.

Paul and I sent the young people off to visit yet more friends and family.  The house now quiet we spent a pleasant time together washing dishes and remembering the evening just past.  There is something magical about the warm silence that fills a home filled with love.

Now I sit in my pink rocking chair by the window as the sun sets thus it is that I began and ended my day in quiet reflection. 

Heaven will be made of just such times a these.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2019 twosnydergirls 

5 Minutes Of My Day - Creation is chosen by God

God has chosen all of creation as his own.  Not because humanity is perfect rather because we are his children and God believes in what we can yet become.  

Our way to becoming more than we are is set out in Colossian 3:12-14 “… cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

After service this morning I went out into our garden to pick rhubarb and in gardens not yet weeded burst forth the most amazing yellow flowers.  They were beautiful and also defined by horticultural societies as invasive weeds.  As I stood admiring the colour, how delicate the flowers were this morning words of hope and love came back to me.

We try to design our lives, homes, gardens, communities, what is good and what is bad and we do this from our very small and imperfect view of the world.  

Where God loves it all and over looks the imperfections in favour of what creation - what we can yet become.

I will leave our yellow weeds as a reminder that I am not the creator and I am in the process of becoming all that I can be.

2017 Watching the pollinators move about our flower beds
their sweet buzz everywhere.

2016 Listen to music our house wren was making as she guarded her nest

2015 sitting on the lawn pulling weeds when I notice
this robin following in my wake pulling up the insects revealed.

2014 At a pot luck dinner enjoying fresh strawberries

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls 2018